Excerpt from The Works of Frederick Schiller: Historical; History of the Thirty Years' War, Complete; History of the Revolt of the Netherlands to the Confederacy of the Gueux Fearful indeed, and destructive, was the first movement in which this general political sympathy announced itself; a desolating war of thirty years, which, from the interim of Bohemia to the mouth of the Scheldt, and from the banks of the P0 to the coasts of the Baltic, devastated whole coun tries, destroyed harvests, and reduced towns and villages to ashes; which opened a grave for many thousand combatants, and for half a century smothered the glimmering sparks of civilization in. Germany, and threw back the improving man ners of the country into their pristine barbarity and wildness. Yet out of this fearful war Europe came forth free and in dependent. In it she first learned to recognize herself as a community of nations; and this intercommunion of states, which originated in the thirty years' war, would alone be sufficient to reconcile the philosopher to its horrors. The hand of industry has slowly but gradually effaced the traces of its ravages, while its beneficent influence still survives; and this general sympathy among the states of Europe. Which grew out of the troubles in Bohemia, is our guarantee for the continuance of that peace which was the result of the war. As the flames of destruction found their way from the interior of Bohemia, Moravia, and Austria, to kindle Germany, France, and the half of Europe, so also will th torch of civilization make a path 101' itself from the latter to enlighten the former countries. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.